Question
Mokolo dam ABA Final S
Hi Mr. Gaither,
My name is Shandon Hawman, I am 40years old and have been
fishing for bass since I was 5. I have recently qualified as
the sole South African representative to fish in next months
ABA Weekender series on Lake Seminole. The dates are from
the 16 / 17 October starting from Bainbridge launch area,
near the Marine Berry highway. I will be fishing until 3pm
on both days, so want to maximise my time by not running too
much if I dont have too. I would appreciate a little local
knowledge around the area, maybe a few patterns that work
well that time of the year and possibly a few holes that
will produce a limit of fish for me. I am versitile, but my
strengths are pitching, frogging, cranking and
spinnerbaiting.
It has been a life long dream to compete in the USA, and I
aim to set the bar for future anglers here.I will be
arriving early in October and want to spend at least 5 days
practicing.
Thanking you in advance.
Regards,
Shandon Hawman
SA Bass team captain.
AnswerHello Mr. Hawman, First let me offer you a welcome to the United States and the great state of Georgia.
To begin with let me tell you a little about this lake. I do not know what kind of water you are used to fishing but this lake is likely different from most lakes It is a relatively old lake having had the dam closed in 1957. Two rivers flowed together about a mile above the present dam. There is one major stream feeding into the lake about two miles above the confluence of the two rivers. The Flint Rivers enters the lake at Bainbridge a small city of perhaps 15-20 thousand people. The flint River runs from generally northeast to southwest about 22 miles to join the Chattahoochee River coming down the Georgia-Alabama state line from the north. The Creek that feeds the lake is called Spring Creek and it makes up one arm of the lake. This arm is where I live and I do most of my fishing in that arm although I have fished several times down in the Flint River arm and up the Chattahoochee arm. However, I have not been very far up the Flint River toward Bainbridge Therefore I can only give you points on the area that I have fished. Make sure you get a map of the lake when you first get here.
While the areas and tactics that I will give you are on the lower part of the lake and in The Spring Creek arm but many of the methods will likely work in the area up the lake toward Bainbridge. If you want to run down the lake to fish this area I can help. If you are going to spend five days practice you might want to contact me and let me show you some places where I have caught some very good bass.
I was going to send you some maps but I cannot do it on here. If you would like to send me your e-mail address I can send them. With the maps I could give you some latitude and longitude points of some hot spots that I have found over the years.
Of course, in mid October the weather will be a factor. If we have early cold fronts one set of methods would be in play. If the weather stays warm another set will be in effect. When we get closer to the time of your fishing I may be able to give you more specific ideas where to fish and what to use. I use a lot of crank baits and spinnerbaits. I like topwater baits particularly for big bass. I will use soft plastic lures such as worms or lizards. I haven't used many jigs but pitching is used here by many.
This lake is relatively shallow averaging under 12'. The only relatively deep water is in the channels of the rivers and creek with a maximum of about 30 feet. Much of the lake is heavily weeded with large areas of hydrilla. This hydrilla makes a good place for pitching a large jig with a plastic or pork trailer. If I were fishing a tournament I would give this a try. I have caught most of my bigger bass just off the channel of the creek near the stumps. That is another thing this lake has is stumps. Most of these are in about 12-14 feet of water. They are the remains of standing timber which has broken off near water level. I have caught some nice bass by casting a plastic worm against one of the stumps at water level and letting it drop on a slack line. This allows the worm to sink close to the stump. The bass is often right up against the bottom of the stump. I have caughta lots of bass on spinnerbaits cast into the stump fields and letting it fall to the bottom then slow rolling it back to the boat. Oh, by the way, While running in this lake with your gasoline motor at anything above idle make certain that you are in the boat trails marked by either buoys in the rivers and sets of pilings elsewhere. In the stump fields I would suggest that you use a trolling motor only as many stumps are broken off under water especially if the water is high. Many a boat and motor have come to grief on the stumps.
I also like to use a chrome/black or chrome/blue Rattletrap lure worked among the stumps or over the grass (submerged hydrilla) just ticking the top of the grass. There are some areas of large lilly pads where a weedless spoon like a Johnson Silver Minnow with a pork frog (not plastic) pulled over the pads can bring some vicious strikes. In the evening or on low light days when the water is quiet a surface bait can bring some big bass. I have caught my biggest bass on these over the years. Probably because I love to fish them. I like the Hula Popper, the magnum Jitterbug, the Devil's Horse, or the large Zara Spook worked among the stumps. A crankbait pulled among the stumps is also a good bet.
You might go back and read some of my earlier answers to questions of fishing on this lake. That might be better than me trying to repeat what I have written before. Of course the best way would be to do what I mentioned before, contact me when you get here and see if we could get together for a couple of days on the water to show you places. You can contact me directly via e-mail at
[email protected] and when you get here by phone 229-861-2366.
I hope this will help you to enjoy our lake and I hope you do well in the tournament. Thanks for calling on me to answer your question.
Jack L. Gaither (JackfromSeminole)
Lake Seminole, Georgia
[email protected]
229-861-2366
